Chapter 37: Red Cape Plateau

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“This thing is impervious to weapons? I have a bag of sunflower seeds here, care for some?”

“Sure, I’ll take some,” despite the strong winds and sand.

“Its weight is almost that of an elephant. Hiss, if it sits on someone, it could really flatten them! Dad, isn’t that poor wretch one of Nian Songyu’s men?”

“What is ‘xiang’?”

“Nothing. The Imperial Preceptor is casting a spell! He threw two large fireballs into the enemy’s mouth, and the toad burped… Hmm, it doesn’t seem to have worked.”

About fifteen minutes later, the two purple-gold toads were thrown off the ship.

Compared to their impressive appearance when they first jumped onto the ship, their bodies had shrunk to a fifth of their original size, transforming from bloated to skin and bones. He Lingchuan remembered that Imperial Preceptor Sun had cut openings in their bodies, then inserted something inside. The two toads then visibly slimmed down, became dehydrated, couldn’t jump, and their eyes bulged even more. Then they died.

“Did you get a good look?” They looked utterly exhausted and lifeless.

He Chunhua shook his head. As an Imperial Preceptor, he naturally possessed extraordinary methods, and it was likely these methods would work just as well on humans.

During the rest of the journey, the team encountered two more attacks from monsters undeterred by the stench. However, only Imperial Preceptor Sun’s ship was affected, while the other two remained unharmed. Others marveled at the Imperial Preceptor’s luck and felt fortunate that the monsters hadn’t jumped onto their own boats, knowing they wouldn’t have been dealt with so decisively.

But Sun Fuping and others secretly frowned. Why had all three attacks targeted the Imperial Preceptor? What did this indicate? Was it a case of a tall tree catching the wind?

Hurrying along, the team finally approached their destination before nightfall. The messenger on Nian Songyu’s ship pointed into the distance and shouted to the companions on the two ships behind, “Panlong City is ahead!”

There was no need for his reminder; everyone had already gathered at the bow, admiring the most spectacular sight in the Panlong Desert—the Chipa Plateau. This plateau had been pushed up by an irresistible force countless years ago, rising from the flat ground below by at least forty zhang (one hundred thirty meters)! Between them lay an unfathomably deep gorge, six zhang wide. It was like the dividing line between two continents: clear, distinct, and resolute.

As the Walnut Boats reached this point, the boatmen operated with extreme caution, using cured meat to lure the earth dragons and guide them westward along the natural chasm. Falling in would be the end of them. After about fifteen minutes, the ancient city of Panlong finally began to grow larger in everyone’s sight, its grey outer walls becoming more distinct.

The plateau was vast, its vertical face like the cut side of a double-layered cake, forming an almost ninety-degree angle with the flat ground. The words ‘desolate’ and ‘majestic’ seemed to have been coined for it. As the sun began to set, it cast dappled shadows on the plateau’s edge, making it resemble a colossal beast sprawling in the desert, winding and silent. Such terrain was undoubtedly a classic example of being easy to defend and difficult to attack, explaining why Zhong Shengguang had been able to hold out here year after year. Without such objective conditions, sentiment and fervor would have been mere empty talk.

Further on, the plateau’s elevation gently sloped downwards, as if it were a long descent. Panlong City stood at the mouth of this slope, firmly guarding the only southern pass to the Chipa Plateau!

The boats slowed, revealing a bridge spanning north to south, stretching across the entire deep gorge. It was a natural stone bridge, connecting the land beneath their feet to the south, and a small clearing in front of Panlong City’s South Gate to the north. To attack Panlong City, this seemed to be the only path. Even ten times the military force wouldn’t be able to conquer it. He Lingchuan looked at the stone bridge and felt a surge of frustration for the combined forces of Xianyuan and Baling from over a century ago. Later history proved: ten times? Ha!

Upon reaching this point, the journey of the Walnut Boats temporarily came to an end. The boatmen took down the cured meat from the punt poles and threw it to the earth dragons as their reward. After two hours of frantic running, the three earth dragons were so exhausted they seemed to be smoking from their mouths. If not for their inherent single-mindedness, their brains being smaller than a ball, and their constant anticipation of the deliciously fragrant meat just ahead, they would have given up long ago. Now that the meat was finally in their mouths, the earth dragons paid no heed to the numerous potential prey around them and twisted away, running off.

Everyone disembarked, and Imperial Preceptor Sun came over to retrieve his magical artifact. He recited a few incantations, and the large boat transformed back into a small walnut. Despite the strong wind and sand, the air here was many times fresher than on the boat, and the soldiers, now free from the stench of cured meat, couldn’t help but breathe deeply.

He Lingchuan tapped his toe on the ground: “Are we not afraid of strange beasts or monsters approaching if we stop here? Like they did along Red Cliff Road.”

Nian Songyu smiled, “It’s all rock underneath here, less than half a foot of sand. At most, a few centipedes or sand snakes could hide. Are you scared?”

He Lingchuan kicked aside a layer of sand and indeed found hard rock beneath. That was right; if the sides of the gorge weren’t solid rock, the natural bridge would have collapsed long ago.

Nian Songyu suddenly asked, “What’s going on?”

Hearing this, He Lingchuan turned around and saw several of Zeng Feixiong’s men approaching, escorting two individuals. The two struggled desperately. Though one was short and the other thin, it took three strong men each to barely restrain them. Most strangely, both wore talismans akin to riding jackets, which were essentially two pieces of yellow silk draped over their front and back, then tied together, eliminating the need for sleeves or collars. Vermilion talismans on the silk floated up, slowly revolving around the captives.

Undoubtedly, these had originally been Zeng Feixiong’s subordinates. But their gaze towards the others was strange, both violent and greedy. He Lingchuan, having hunted before, felt that such a look belonged more to a coyote.

“They’re possessed by the Three-Corpse Worms.” Seeing their condition, Zeng Feixiong felt uneasy. “The Imperial Preceptor tied up two of them for observation.” The Three-Corpse Worms on the other ships had been driven away, but Sun Fuping had kept two.

He now took the lead, stepping onto the bridge. The bridge itself was quite wide, about fifteen zhang (approximately fifty meters), yet amidst the wilderness, over the gorge, and before Panlong City, it appeared as slender as a toothpick. The vast armies of the allied forces back then likely met their bitter end here, countless times.

He Lingchuan looked down and saw the bridge surface was mottled with varying shades of color, clearly stained many years ago, with layers of grime accumulated over centuries, still showing different depths. Walking on the bridge, everyone seemed to smell the pungent scent of blood. This was the frontline of the great war of the three armies back then. Countless battles had raged back and forth around this very spot. The souls of the dead here far outnumbered those elsewhere.

Sun Fuping suddenly said, “This bridge was man-made; it’s not natural.”

Nian Songyu stomped his foot on the ground and added, “The material is indeed different from the wilderness. This must have been built by the allied forces of Baling and Xianyuan.”

Zeng Feixiong, walking beside He Lingchuan, was greatly surprised to hear this: “The stone has no seams, it’s a solid piece. Was this built by humans? Besides, the sentries on Panlong City aren’t blind; how could they let the enemy build a bridge right under their noses?”

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